Infinite Realms
by GoliathPyroson
Summary: Danny Fenton was just fourteen when he broke the veil between the earth and a dimension locked away so long ago that few remember a time when it was free. The Guardians of the Infinite Realms have yet to be chosen for their task, so someone else is going to have to deal with the consequences. (un)Luckily, Danny happened to grant himself the power to take up that responsibility
1. Chapter 1

"Hello, dear readers of whatever age that you are. My name - at the moment - is Goliath. I'm here to tell you a story about the multiverse. Well," he chuckled. "Perhaps not all of it. I'm going to tell you about a specific universe, and a bundle of its timelines. Now, before we begin, I'd like to give a little lesson on the universe and its dimensions and how they can touch and interact. Parallel lines never intersect, yes? Well, that only holds true if the plain upon which the lines exist is constant. You know, flat, boring, never changing. If that space bends, then it no longer holds true. On a spherical plain, any two parallel lines intersect at two points. And Time and Space curve around the center of the universe, the universe being a multilayered spherical plain. Thus, there are infinite points of intersection at any given time, though with this simplified model we have the smaller infinity - such as an infinity of only whole numbers." He shrugged, waving off the issue. "Oh well, we're not going into pocket dimensions at the moment, so there's no need to think too much on that.

"Think of each dimension as a line, parallel to each other dimension. Now, since there are infinite points of intersect, there's an infinite amount of places and times at which this intersect could bridge the two dimensions. If someone or something were to, I dunno, force one of these bridges to stabilize, you'd have a portal to another dimension forced right open for you. The trick is to make sure that you're traveling across a layer of Space and not Time; otherwise, things get weird, and possibilities get erased and altered, and I'll have to correct the error I've detected in the coding of reality. Blah blah blah." He pointed at a sphere of various changing colors, a grin on his face. "You're not interested in the consequences of something like that, though, now are you? No, you want to know about something special that happens when two dimensions touch.

"Here we have a universe, and we'll be looking here at the story of a select group of people. Now, keep in mind: people is a rather relative term, just like alien. Anyway, we've got two stories that someone - that would be moi - has decided to mash into each other and meddle with. After all, I wrote the code; I can alter it as I so, please. You get to read the results!

"With that out of the way, I bring you a fun little piece of story. Dive in and tell me what you think."

 _Jumping right in I do think I'll say one important thing; Infinity refers to space. It needs a balance, yes? What better balance than Eternity? Life balanced by Death, Space by Time, Light by Darkness, etc. After all, we can't have only one nigh-omniscient being in charge of any universe, can we?_

* * *

 **Greetings and Beanvenue my dearest readers, it is I, Goliath Pyroson. And yes, that's who is written up there talking to you all. I balance myself by keeping half of my brain asleep at all times, switching as needed. like dolphins. You humans need to evolve this trait so that you can stay conscious 24/7, you'll be more productive then. Anyways, A few questions that I'll answer now:**

 **No, I don't have a specific villain in mind beyond a few from the show, but you'll see them when you see them. I'm not the kind to plan ahead from the beginning but to plan forward after hitting a point where I realize that it looks somewhat like I made a plot and have tricked the Phans into believing that so I have to think some end game up.**

 **the W.i.t.c.h. comics are frankly better than the show but I love the show too. plus, read coming online vanished as i hit issue #25... oh wait no I found a new site or two to read the comics from, so frankly I don't know which I'll be going with.**

 **for now, it'll mainly be DP with W.i.t.c.h. Elements thrown in, but I promise you that you'll see some witchy things here and there. After all, Candracar (if the symbol is the C thing that is on the Oracle's head then I'm spelling it with a C) can't let the bursting of a veil put in place over such a volatile place go un dealt with.**

 **I have a job and several stories whirling in my head, updates will become a scarce species in my profile so watch those emails if you see a bunch of them at once.**

 **I recently found a senpai, who has long since quit this site, but left his work on it. Truly, the best thing to do. It inspired me, after all. so as i look back on his work for reference and then at some other sources for reference, realize that no, this isn't how DP was in canon but canon was kinda dumb, cause it challenged my cannon and look at it now. it's dead.**

 _ **Yes I am rewritting DP at my own update speed, who can stop me? I'm not makin money offa this**_

 **ask any questions you want and i may answer them and as always, i hope you have fun reading**

 **also, Goliath may or may not appear in this story.**


	2. Episode 1: Beginning

**Now then ladies and germs, I bring you this. This is the perfected version of Chapter one and damn did this take a while to get just right. Enjoy this episode of Infinite Realms; I do sincerely hope that it is to your liking, cause we're in for one hell of a ride!**

* * *

"And this," Danny gestured grandly at the chrome covered area in general. "Is the FentonWorks Laboratory. This is where my parents - and me and Jazz if we get permission - come down to make our amazing inventions. Mainly the Gravity Inverters™, but I don't know if the general public is ready for that yet." he shrugged. "I just know that once I have my license for a motorcycle, I'm going to make a hovercycle."

"We're making a hovercycle," Tucker emphasized, a grin tugging at his lips as the geek's wandering gaze refocused on his best friend. "Don't think I'm not gettin on that bad boy once it's done. Then we can ride to school in style!" He walked over to a table near the door where he saw blueprints for some vehicle. "You started building a rocket and didn't tell me?"

"What? Dad's making a rocket?" Danny ran over and snatched up the blueprints, looking them over. "Nah, that's not a space ship but with a few modifications…"

"I hate to interrupt attack of the Geeks," Sam snorted, pushing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. "But are you gonna tell us about that giant hole in the wall Danny?" The goth pointed her thumb in the direction of a gaping hole, ringed by an octagonal metal frame. Cables linked it to a control panel on it's right, which led to a large computer with three monitors pressed against the wall. "I mean, that's a real eye catcher, don't you think?"

"I guess," he shrugged, tone as dry as he could get it. "But I mean, it's not like you can't find holes in the walls of nature… or downtown, really. Giant wall holes aren't special." Sam rolled her eyes with a grin and Tucker snickered as the raven haired boy walked over to the metallic tunnel and waved at it. "What makes this hole in a wall so special, you ask?" His voice, a bit high from the changes of puberty, dropped to a dramatic pitch.

"Yes," Sam indulged, holding back her laughter better than her meat loving friend. "I do ask. What is so amazing, o great Fentini?" Danny snorted, breaking character for a moment, and the vegan grinned wider.

"This hole in the wall is unique because it was put here by world-renowned scientists, Jack and Maddie Fenton~" he drew out his last name with a grin as he gestured to the control panel. "It's meant to open a gateway between worlds, allowing us to prove to the world that alternate dimensions exist! What's on the other side of the portal? Elves? Hideous alien monsters? Omnicidal robots?"

Tucker raised his hand, pointing to the exposed hole. "Oh, I believe it's concrete and darkness. Possibly some circuitry and plumbing?" His friends gave the geek a flat stare and he shrugged. "Sorry man, it looks like it's not exactly… working?"

"That's because it's still a work in progress Tuck, just like I told you in the park," the young scientist let out a sigh and turned to peer into the darkness, as though it would provide all of the answers to the universe if he stared at it hard enough. "I wonder what's wrong with it, though. Mom and Dad checked, double checked, and quadruple checked, and this spot is where the world should intersect with another. I've even read over their notes; it's all theoretically sound."

Sam raised a skeptical brow, though her friend didn't see it immediately. "They let you look over their notes?" The faux innocence painted on the face he showed her was answer enough. "I thought not, you sneaky snake."

"Am I Apophis, Jörmungandr, or some other special serpent?" When the goth playfully smacked his arm, he stuck out his tongue with a grin.

"So, what went wrong in the practical phase of this portal?" Tucker sat in one of the two swivel chairs before the computer and stared at the screen. "What would they use as passwords?"

"Flowery Judgement," Danny answered, moving to pull the geek away from the controls. "And I don't think you should be rooting around in their files. I'm not exactly allowed down here, or in their notes for the portal or anything big like that. We're lucky Jazz hasn't come down to bust us." Tucker sighed and stood, shoulders drooping. "And we're not sure what the practical error is. Like I said, all the science checks out logically, so it should work."

"Maybe it's a mechanical error?" Sam pulled out her old camera, the one her Nana got her for her fourteenth birthday just last month and snapped a photo. "Why don't you go in and check genius junior? You're pretty smart, and you've read the notes."

Blue eyes widened at the thought - one that had been running through his head since his parents announced that the portal wasn't operational - and he turned to look at the portal. "That's crazy Sam; I don't have a hazmat suit on or anything to go into the potentially hazardous gateway to another world."

"Aren't they here?" Tucker opened a large locker on the left side of the portal pressed against the wall. "Where they've always been? I remember you saying that your mom had made one in your size just a year ago."

"And if you manage to fix it before your parents get home, imagine how proud they'll be." Sam knew that unlike her, the approval of his parents meant a lot to Danny. And he was her best friend, one of the people she'd happily walk into a fire with. That's why, when she saw him open his mouth with protest in his eyes, she cut him off with a sigh. "Just ten minutes? Then, we can get to the Dumpty Humpty concert and pretend we were never down here."

"You'll actually let it go?" The youngest Fenton held a deal of skepticism in his tone, but he had every right to be. Sam was stubborn in getting what she wanted and was more likely to drag a hundred pound weight around than let something go. "If I take just ten minutes to go in and see if there're any problems in the wiring or whatever that I can fix, you'll let it drop, and we can go to the concert?" She nodded, and he held out his hand. "You have a deal, my Hufflepuff friend."

"Agreed, Gryffindork," the Goth grinned and shook his hand, moving forward to snap more pictures while he changed into his jumpsuit.

Unfortunately, the suit was a year old, and he hadn't worn it in about two months. Chemicals were more his mom's thing, so he had little reason to wear more than a simple lab coat he kept in the closet of his room. The one piece suit was too tight to wear over his clothes. Pulling off his white and red NASA shirt, faded to the point that the letters were no longer visible, and denim jeans, Danny got down to his boxers and managed to just barely fit the white hazmat suit on, making sure that the black boots belt and gloves were on snugly.

Turning to the portal he walked inward, reaching for the flashlight attached to his belt a couple of steps in when he realized the light from the lab didn't quite reach in and discovered a raised panel. He tripped, stumbling forward, and reached out with his left hand to catch himself. When he heard a click and a high pitch whirring, Danny cursed his ambidextrousness. The circuits within the machine lit up with acidic green light, blinding him for a moment. He turned in the next to try and run out of the tunnel, but the agony hit him.

Danny found himself in too much pain to do much else than scream. Electricity and green light charred his skin, boiling his blood, melting his organs, reducing his bones to ash, lighting his brain on fire. But he was in pain on more than a physical level, though he didn't know that. He didn't know that even his very soul was on fire in that moment, wreathed in the radiation of a world that he was never meant to touch. His scream was one that reached the ears of his friends, his sister two floors up, the neighbors next door, the residents of the other world: in the burning light of the event horizon, all could hear the scream of the boy who was eaten by lightning and swallowed by the river Styx.

Finally, _finally_ , he could make his muscles respond. He was able to make himself move. Every molecule felt as though it were led, but he staggered forward, and when he fell, Danny landed on chrome tiles. The last thing he heard was the sound of Sam and Tucker calling out his name, and then he accepted the sweet embrace of unconsciousness with open arms.

* * *

Jazz ran down the stairs two and three at a time, dialing her parents at the same time with no regard for how dangerous that was. "Mom, Dad, I heard a scream from the lab! It sounded like Danny!" She landed on the tile platform just as a flash of white light faded and let out a gasping scream when she saw her baby brother in his friends' arms. "DANNY! He's hurt, come home quickly!" She ran over and pulled her baby brother away from the two of them and winced. "He's got steam and smoke coming off of him, it smells like burnt nitrile rubber and- the portal! It's on and Danny's barely breathing!"

"What happened to my son?!" Jack bellowed as his wife repeated their daughter's words in panic. The tires screeched as he made a U-turn - traffic laws be damned - and sped back towards their home while Maddie dialed 911. "Hold in there Danny boy, papa's comin!" As he peeled down the road, the image of their SUV blurred before shifting to something else. The mirror showed what the vehicle would become once their modifications were done, and many would question if such a vehicle were even legal.

The other mirrors in the room shifted and blurred between pasts, presents, and futures before the being observing them. The blue skinned spirit wore a purple tunic, gray gloves, and a violet cloak. Upon their arms were six different watches, from their black belt hung a pocket watch, and in their chest was the face and pendulum of a grandfather clock. Each timepiece kept the time of a different world, ticking on at various times but all in sync. Blank red eyes peered up into the variety of giant mirrors lining the walls of their observation room, tail swaying in rhythm with the heartbeat of Giestael.

They watched the paths of the boy and his friends intertwine with that of six girls, each a force to be reckoned with in their own right. Mature yet dramatic, intelligent yet passionate, wise yet effervescent, light-hearted yet forceful, determined yet insecure, powerful yet naive. Clockwork saw confrontations, friendships, and battles in the future for them all. Yet that was the most they could determine out of the possibilities.

Were it not for a certain fool attempting to play Switzerland, several threats that brought upon the need for these girls could have been circumvented. "Well," Clockwork sighed as they turned from their mirrors and floated down the corridors of their Citadel. "I'll simply have to make him see reason. Time Out." As they entered a room marked with a clock, Clockwork mentally braced themselves for the company of the other Time Keepers.

A room made of every shade of blue - pulsing, swirling, shifting around - held few objects. A simply-designed table of mixed green and pink wood separated by blue dominated the area. Twelve chairs surrounded it, seats for twelve entities, some of whom slowly began to appear from the ether.

An olive-skinned man, inhumanly perfect body toga-clad, whose eyes were pits of darkness and decay. A skeleton with cracks in its skull that led both up and down to its eyes dressed in a black jacket and surrounded by skeletal hands. A four hundred pound infant with a dual triangle on the center of its brow. A seemingly normal human wearing a lab coat, pulling out a gold pocket watch to check the time. A woman with dark, white, brown hair and three eyes who sat with her back straight and fiddled with strings of light. A lion with fur several shades of brown and a mane that was lit up with fire and smoke. As each appeared, Clockwork took their place and waited. The last to arrive was a man with a bald head, a white goatee, and C-shaped symbols on his temples.

"Now that everyone is here," Clockwork said into the silence, garnering everyone's attention from their chatter. "There is a matter I wish to discuss before certain actions are taken that might disrupt the time stream."

"Is this about the boy, Clockwork?" The infant asked, voice deep due to size. "He has caused quite a bit of trouble over all of the time streams, and it makes me wonder why you protect him."

"Perhaps because you feel responsible for the future that you impose upon him time after time?" Kronos, the patricidal bastard, sneered at the spirit. Why did they allow his continued existence? "After all, you must have some form of conscious under all of that enigmacy nibling?" Clockwork silently commended their uncle for using such a new word. They'd have to give him a cookie later.

"I protect him," Clockwork started slowly, gripping their staff tightly to remain calm. "Because not only is he my responsibility, but also the path of least resistance towards a brighter future."

"Or, a devastating one." A soft and light voice carried across the table, and ruby eyes focused on the robed young man directly across from them. "With the veil over Giestael torn down by young Daniel's actions, the dangers of the Spirit World are now loosed upon the universe! Surely such a crime cannot go unpunished!" Pale blue eyes were narrowed in rarely seen anger, and Clockwork felt the same emotion flare up in their core.

"A crime that should not go unpunished, Himerish, is your own." Clockwork pointed their staff at the Oracle of Kandrakar with a snarl. "You could have helped us, could have sent the Guardians that you had at the time to aid in the war against Pariah, but instead of helping or allowing other worlds to do so, you sealed off my world!" Some of the other timekeepers saw where this conversation was headed and promptly left the room. Even Scaevola, who could not reform his molecules anywhere else in the Realms for another thousand years.

"It is the duty of Kandrakar to maintain the peace of the worlds and push back threats," Himerish argued, hands pressed against the line on his part of the table. "Geisteal warranted a major threat to the cosmos and had to be quarantined! Is it not the role of Infinity to keep Eternity in check, Prometheus?"

Clockwork's eyes widened, and green fire burned across their form with their fury. They had not held that name for eons and t weren't about to take it again. "Just as it is the role of Eternity to do the same to Infinity!" They slammed their staff down on the river of time that flowed around them all, images of destruction and carnage playing out before the eyes of the Council. "We were cut off from the entire universe because of you! We had to fight a millennia-long war that would have taken no more than a decade with proper allies. Countless lives and afterlives were lost because of you! I lost my ability to affect the Realms and thus, regulate your activity when you cut me off."

"Unlike Geisteal, Kandrakar has shown no need for outside regulation, Prometheus." Himerish let out a breath of offense before attempting to regain his composure. It was evident by the swirls of pink that ebbed from his body that it was superficial at best. "I have allowed the course of Time to flow as it will, without interruption or interference. Unlike you, I do not meddle where I do not need to. If the universe so wills something to happen, then it will happen."

"Such reliance upon Destiny is a sign of naivete," Paradox, the human professor, pointed out with a look of irritation. "You have the power to change things for the better, yet you would allow disaster after disaster to occur in the name of allowing Time to run its course?"

"Time knows no morals or differences such as better or worse, Paradox." A woman with curls as dark as night accused. "To interfere as you do is a disruption in how things ought to be. Though, in this, the Titan's desire lies. Oracle, your request to punish the boy would be interfering with an event that has happened over nearly all of the timelines."

"The boy's action creates a breach in an essential barrier against threats the cosmos has not seen in thousands of years, Hemsut." The robed man let out a sigh and shook his head. "It is my job to protect the Infinite Realms."

"Your words now contradict each other, Himerish." The triclops tutted in her three voices and held up a thread of light to examine with one eye. "You wish not to interfere with the timeline, yet you wish to act against Destiny for the sake of your secondary job? You show inequity in this situation of a morally neutral concept."

"Time itself knows no scruples, and yet we who have the paramount to change its furtherance and alter the causatum of history do, Norn." The skeleton - no, revenant - pointed out, half of his seven hands gesturing as he spoke. "If we do not recondition things for the better, then why should we wield such power in the first place?"

"And who is to say that which is better?" A two-headed male pointed out. "So long as the world itself continues, the fate of the inhabitants is not the concern of Time."

"And if the residents capable of dying who live in those dimensions and timelines can lead better, fuller happier lives, fewer of them pose any threat and those that do present far lesser dangers and potential cataclysms to their world and the neighboring ones that tend to get into a tizzy when such dangers are presented," the grey-eyed professor argued. "Without life for the world to hold, it shall crumble from imbalance and lack of purpose and die."

"This council exists to eliminate such threats," the triclops reminded. "To avoid doomsday."

"And so we must achieve that intent through carcinogenic extort alone?" Blue and orange eyes flared up like neon lights in the darkest of pits. "We should allow Destiny to onset people into veers where they can only lash out in hopes of a better future, and then destroy them when they try to make things fit in an erroneous way? Can we not hinder them from experiencing such horrors, or at least usher them to better ways afterward?"

"If we were to interfere in such a way, we would be acting as though we were the ones in charge of the universe," Himerish stated, eyes cold as he stared ahead. Directly at Clockwork. "We are the protectors, vanguards, and sentinels of the Realms, not its gods."

"And as is protectors," Clockwork bit back, crimson gaze full of ire. "We should strive to keep atrocities from happening. If you had acted with wisdom or compassion, the afterlives of innumerable beings would have been saved, the souls of my people spared, and my home planet would not be a scattered field of one hundred and forty-five asteroids."

"And what would you have prevented that I supposedly allowed to happen, Prometheus? Who would you have saved?"

"I would have prevented the Death of Cassidy." The council was silent. Only the ticking of various time pieces chipped away at the suffocating quiet. "I would have helped that poor little boy with the issue of his depression and mutism; I would have addressed the poison within Narissa's heart, I would have done a great many things to ease the weight of your folly, your arrogance, and your laziness."

"I have no need for your advice, nor your reprimand, Prometheus." The hiss that escaped Himerish's lips was a sound of such rage that the other timekeepers knew not the Oracle was capable of. He opened his mouth to continue but was cut off by the sound of a heartbeat. No, the sound of two.

Two rhythms pulsated through the space that was time and permeated the very being of all the gathered entities. Two spheres -one a star of pink, the other one of Emerald - appeared over the center of the table, and a body formed around the two. What seemed to be a ten-year-old human child at a glance solidified atop the table and stood with his hands on his hips. Where one would expect white, there was green. Floating within those pools of green were circles of magenta. The boy was covered in markings of every conceivable language, and each glowed various colors - many beyond the eyes of mortals. He glared down at the two quarreling Timekeepers, disapproval written clearly across his face. "Honestly, you two." The being's voice held deceptive youth, but with a wave, the energies of life and death that rolled off Himerish and Clockwork ceased.

"Clockwork and those on their side; calm your shit, things happen and sometimes you just gotta deal with the consequences. Sometimes your power will not be enough to prevent a cataclysm. Himerish and those on his side; fuck you, because you are in fact able to do something about the problems of others and just don't want to. Don't hide behind the intricacies and delicacies of Time to mask the fact that you simply don't want to do the Thing." There were nods all around the table before this being turned his attention entirely to the Oracle. "And Himerish? Veiling Geisteal was a dick move. Not only that, but it did, in fact, go against the balancing act that you and Clockwork are meant to be doing. This is one of your crimes, and I shall not see you enacting justice upon those who fall under Clockwork's jurisdiction until said person falls under yours as well. Danny shall continue as Clockwork so deems fit, and if they decide to be a dick about the kid's future, that's entirely up to them, not you."

"Yes, Lord Goliath." If there was one authority that got the final say, it was the Guardian of the Balance. Himerish's pride as the Oracle would not interfere with his wisdom of heeding Goliath's word. "I shall act as you have declared."

"Good. And Clocky?" Goliath turned to grin at Clockwork. "When you get the chance, dance a little dance with the kid, will ya?"

* * *

While she checked over her brother's vital signs as best as she could, Jasmine Fenton unleashed the full verbal fury of a sister enraged upon his friends. "How could you all do something like this? The lab is off limits to everyone without mom and dad's permission for a reason! Going into the portal like that was a dumb idea and as brash as Danny is, I know he wouldn't go in without a push from one of you, so how the hell could you not bring yourselves to think 'a lab full of experimental equipment and potentially hazardous chemicals, that unfinished humungous project in the wall is probably the deadliest thing here!" She yanked off his hazmat suit, exposing flesh that was scorched with raw red, zigzag lines. Lichtenberg scars littered his body. It was incredible that he was even breathing, if barely. "He could have died! You all could have died! The house could have exploded if something was done wrong, are you all insane or just fucking stupid?!"

Sam and Tucker both took the verbal abuse with heads hung in shame and eyes full of fear. Tucker was shaking, and Sam was paler than a sheet of paper. Danny was so still, they both feared that if they were to blink too many times the tiny rise and fall of his chest would stop and he'd simply die. That scream… it was a sound that would haunt them for the rest of their lives; there was no doubt in that.

Jack and Maddie arrived on the scene in mere minutes, uncaring of the speed laws that Jack had broken to get them there in time.

"Danny!" They cried out at once, moving to his body faster than Sam or Tucker could track. "My baby boy, what have you done to him?" Maddie glared at her son's friends - if they could still be called that - and reminded herself that assaulting minors would get her in jail and away from her kids. "How dare you even come down here without getting our permission? This is a closed off area, restricted from any eyes but our own unless we say otherwise! Look at what you did to my baby boy!" She cradled Danny in her arms and stood with him. He felt cold and limp in her embrace, no tension in his body at all like there was when he slept. Even unconscious, Danny would curl up as soon as something touched him.

"If our boy doesn't make it, then you two better get your best-damned lawyers because we'll press charges until you're punished for this to the fullest extent of the law." Jack roared at the two, his size being a particularly intimidating factor that neither ever considered before. If I knew this would happen, I'd have set up a lock that keeps you both out of our house!"

"Jack, we need to get Danny to the hospital immediately!" Maddie bolted for the stairs, followed by her giant of a husband.

The horror on their faces, the thunder in their voices - it nearly made the teens cry. Tucker could feel tears welling up in his eyes as his best friend was carried out of the lab and up to the SUV. Jazz sat in the back, holding onto Danny, and making sure that he didn't get hurt on their way to the hospital. Sam began to follow after them on foot - Tucker followed and passed her to her great surprise. He hated hospitals, feared them with a passion great enough to burn a forest down. It didn't matter, not when Danny could die because of them. He had to be there for him. They both had to be there for him. There was no other way.

* * *

 _The darkness of unconsciousness did not give him true rest. He floated in a void, where he could hear nothing. The silence didn't last long, howling winds that bit through his flesh and seeped into his bones. Opening his frost covered eyes, Danny looked out and saw a tall figure dressed in black and white in the distance. A blink and the figure was a mere two feet away from him. Black eyes that glittered like frozen tar, near hidden by bangs that hung just above them, the river of ebony locks flowing behind the sturdy man's back down to where his elbows rested. Deep violet wings spread out from his back and blocked out the void behind the man, who towered over Danny. The teen needed to look up just to meet his eyes._

 _"So," an oily voice spilled from the man's lips, echoing in the empty space that Danny assumed to be either the afterlife or his head. "You are the child that she gave life to, eh?" The boy opened his mouth - to scream in terror, make a quip, or answer_ with _a question he didn't know - but found that he couldn't speak. Not a sound would come from his own mouth. "Worry not, boy," the man tried to reassure him, an icy cold hand resting on his shoulder. "I will not harm you, and here you are safe, for now."_

 _Looking into the other's pitch black shirt, he saw faces shifting and moving in the fabric, and could hear muted screams coming from the man's white jacket. This did little to inspire trust or safety in him. "You should count yourself lucky, boy." Blue eyes rose up to meet those orbs of void once more. "Not many are allowed to visit me in this place without being truly and permanently dead. You, however, have been given a gift from the Spirit Mother. As such, I'll tell you about the world that you opened a path to." The man's left wing folded onto his back, and Danny was granted the sight of a sea of green. "First of all, unlike you humans, I am aware of the Name of my world. Careful not to tell too many people this name, though, alright?" Not seeing much of a choice, the boy nodded as he was pulled along through the void of emerald energy that arced and swirled like flares of a star._

 _"This world, which those who have moved in have begun to call the Ghost Zone, is actually named Geistael." Guy-_ stee _-all? That definitely rolled off the tongue. "I'm not the one who chose the name, She is. She being the world herself, of course."_

* * *

Jazz, Jack, Maddie, Tucker and Sam all sat in the uncomfortable chairs in the hospital lobby, waiting to hear about Danny's condition. Sam's heart was heavy with guilt, having been the one who pressured him into entering the machine. _How could I have been so stupid?_ She berated herself internally. _Danny didn't really want to go into the damn machine; he wanted to just show us the lab and go to the concert! Why did I push him to go in?_ Her face had never been in such a dark scowl, even when she tried to get mad at her parents or seem as depressing as possible. If her eyes could be trusted, her mouth sure as hell couldn't, then Sam was sure that she had even seen Danny's ghost.

Tucker had his eyes closed and was doing his best to focus not on the hospital around him. He focused on Danny, and how the younger teen needed his support. Sure, he never really believed in stuff like that, higher powers or intelligences that decided the goings on of the universe. But if it helped Danny… if it helped Danny, Tuck would pray to every god under the sun and over it. Danny had been his friend since they were seven years old and they had spent every moment together, sharing everything that they could. He wouldn't allow his best friend - his brother - to go through something like this while he sat at home trying to forget everything just because he was in a place of medicine.

Jazz was split between worry and fury. How could she allow something like this to happen on her watch? She should have gone down and made sure they went to the concert not go down to the lab and get Danny hurt! She had been reading a psychology textbook in her room when all of the electronics flickered and some sort of pressure washed over the room from the ground up, leaving a cold static to tingle her skin. She hadn't even a moment to wonder what happened before she heard her brother's screams.

Jack held a frown as deep as the Marianas trench on his face, hand clasped around his wife's smaller, shaking one to give support and to get it. Something inside the machine must have gone wrong, something must have been miswired, something must have delayed the start up. Something he had done wrong may nearly have cost his son his life. How does one live with that kind of weight on their soul?

Maddie's foot wouldn't stop tapping, nor would the fingers of the hand that wasn't holding onto Jack for dear life. Every fiber of her being was telling her to lash out, attack whatever it was that was hurting her baby boy so that he could wake up and be safe and in her arms again. She wanted to tear into something, wanted to hold her Danny close and never let him go. She wanted to disassemble the lab and set it ablaze, go back and undo the mistake of creating the portal so that Danny would never have been hurt like this.

Tucker perked up from his slump, back ramrod straight as his eyes opened, flecks of yellow dotting the peridot orbs. He felt something, some spark that left ghost static rolling over his skin and raised goose bumps under his warm sweater. "Danny's ok." Before the words left his mouth and drew the attention of everyone gathered, he felt the spark again. It was almost like a pulse. A slow, weak pulse but it was there. "I don't know how I know, but I do."

Jazz and Maddie opened their mouths, about to tell Tucker off for spouting nonsense at a time like this, but a man in blue-green scrubs left the doors that they weren't permitted to go behind and called out Danny's name. "Fenton J Daniel? Is the family of Fenton J Daniel present?" Jack rose to his full seven feet and nodded to the man. The nurse offered the grim giant a tight smile. "If you and your family could please come with me?" Tucker and Sam got up at the same time that Maddie and Jazz did. No one protested as of yet, and all five of them followed the nurse behind the doors.

After a seemingly endless hallway, they found themselves in a room where Danny lay in a bed hooked up to various machines, a man with short black hair standing over the boy with a clipboard in hand and a frown on his face. He looked up and ushered the group in, even though they had already piled into the room. "Ah, Drs. Fenton, I'm not sure what to think here. Your son… his body temperature has dropped to 49 degrees Fahrenheit, and his pulse is currently 38 beats per minute. For all intents and purposes, I'm sorry," he paused, moving back so that Jack and Maddie could get closer to their boy. "But… he should be dead. I'm not sure how he's stable with these results, but I doubt he'll last much longer in this condition." The doctor gave them his best apologetic look, reaching up to place a hand on Jack's shoulder. "You may want to say your goodbyes now, in case he doesn't wake up." Maddie began to shake, and Jazz moved closer to her father as tears began to fall from her eyes.

"Cold as ice…" Jack muttered, having taken his glove off to feel Danny's forehead. There was far too little heat in his body. "He's pale as paper too."

"Danny, baby..." Maddie rested her head on his chest, next to his heart, "Fight it. Don't leave us yet…"

* * *

" _Well then," the man said, waving a hand at the hospital room - and Danny's unconscious body. "It appears we've been gone longer than I thought we had. Time gets wonky like that for me, ya know?" He shrugged, and found the unamused expression on his young passenger's face rather amusing. "Well, I'll let you get back to your family. Remember: good and evil are questions of perspective, go easy on your friends when they fuck up and lemme tell ya this." He leaned in close, the stocky build of the apparent grim reaper expanding to block out the sight of everything else. "Your parents won't hurt you, but they can't know **everything**. Revelation has a price - you just happened to have paid a pretty big one in advance and got this lesson."_

 _Danny really wasn't sure he had absorbed all that much information. There were so many things about the rivers and ruined planet to take in that he was worried it would all slip from his memory. "Oh don't worry about that, this is all pretty deep in your subconscious," the reaper assured. "You'll have it all right up there to remember - when the time comes for you to know that you have any memories. For now, though, you should really get back into your body before you fall into a coma."_

 _Before Danny could question how he would be getting back to his body, his vision was overtaken by white and the last of Thanupsin that he heard was, "It's been a damn long time, Achilles… welcome back."_

* * *

The doctor had left, and the room was filled with a tense silence as the five of them looked at the unusual patient. No one knew just what to say, for fear of throwing oil on burning bridges instead of water. Just as Sam opened her mouth to apologize for it all, there was a sharp intake of breath. Everyone's eyes widened as Danny began coughing, Jazz rubbing his back as soon as he moved to sit up. When he was able to breathe properly again, his leaden eyelids slowly opened up, a sluggish arm being pulled over his face to block out most of the light. Before he could even slur a question of where he was, the raven haired teen was pulled into a bone crushing embrace, the lights blocked out by traffic cone orange. Another pair of arms, slender like his own, wrapped around him from behind.

It was incredibly tiring to move much at all, so Danny instead relaxed into the hold of his parents with a shaky breath, his eyes growing misty. "I've never been so relieved to have by ribs squeezed to cracking point," he croaked out, unsettled by the quiet, slow beeping of his heart monitor, and his family's uneven breathing. Warm tears fell into his hair and down his cheeks, and Danny felt another weight join in on the group hug.

When the Fentons were able to pull themselves away from Danny to let him breathe, Tucker and Sam pounced on the opportunity and hugged the life out of him themselves. "Wow," he rasped, swallowing a bit to try and moisten his sandy throat. "All it takes to get a goth to hug you is a near death experience." Sam let out a choked laugh and Tucker shook with giggles, and for a moment, they could pretend that everything was perfectly ok.

That was until Jack and Jazz cleared their throats, and Maddie leveled a glare that could inspire a lioness on the trio of teens. "Now that Danny's awake," she began slowly, taking a breath to calm herself a bit. "Daniel James Fenton, what in the name of Tartarus were you thinking?! The laboratory is off-limits because it is dangerous to be in it! I have told you fifty-seven times not to go down there without your father or me, and you brought your friends with you?" Sam and Tucker stood at attention, Sam focusing on the point between Maddie's eyebrows while Tucker kept his eyes on the heart monitor. Danny stiffened and realized that every inch of his body felt as if he had run a marathon in a volcano, on the sun. "You are never stepping foot in the lab again! If we can move the portal without disrupting the field, the entirety of the lab itself is going to be moved out of the house so that this has no chance of happening again."

"What?" Danny's eyes widened almost comically, and his jaw met his bed. "But all of the things I've helped make in the lab-"

"Danny," Maddie placed her hands on his shoulder's firmly, fearing that any lighter grip would lead to him fading away. "You nearly died," her voice shook, and the raven haired boy found himself in shock. His mother was always steady and firm in anything she did, from speaking to cooking to hugging to sparring. Maddie Fenton did not falter. "We almost lost you... I almost lost my baby..." Mom didn't falter, and Mom had never cried in front of him before.

"Three weeks," Jack said, his voice booming to the point that Danny idly wondered if neighboring patients would complain. "You will be going three weeks with no cell phone, no Tv, no internet and no comic books. Once you get home, there will be nothing but bed rest and studying, you understand?"

Danny nodded soberly, realizing that he had fucked up majorly. "Yes, sir."

"When we get you home," Maddie muttered when she pulled herself together, "we'll have to run a few tests that they aren't equipped to run here at the hospital. We don't know what exactly the portal has done to you. Rest for now, but once you get home, we need to check up on you."

"I'll build a suit," Jack said, the gears turning in his head like the turbines of an engine. "One that can circumvent the ectoplasmic radiation and convert it into far less harmful electrical energy. That way, it'll filter out any harmful radiation..." He wouldn't lose his boy to anything. Not this portal incident, not to the spear-armed metal people, and not to ectoplasmic radiation.

"Sam, Tucker, I'm telling your parents about this." Both teens let out sounds of disagreement, but Jazz glared and ignored them. "You should be grateful that we aren't pressing charges for manslaughter or something. We don't know what this did to Danny besides burning lightning scars into his skin and causing him agony. This isn't something that's going to just go away because he's awake, and you have to deal with the consequences."

"Who do-" Sam started but was cut off by a less croaky Danny.

"Can I have a glass of water? And a moment with Sam and Tuck before you have them shipped away to their rooms for the rest of eternity?" The scientists sighed and relented, allowing the friends a bit of time to talk. They were relieved to have their Danny still with them after all.

After another long hug, Maddie nodded, and Jazz found the strength to turn herself away from her brother's bed. "We'll be right outside, and you've got ten minutes of private time. I don't want you to burn up what little energy you have talking."

"I won't, I promise." A pat on his head, a kiss on the cheek, and his mom and dad were out the door. There was only one set of footsteps after that, though, which said that Jazz was getting his water. "So, looks like we aren't going to the concert." This earned him a snort of amusement from Tucker and an eye roll from Sam. "Oh well, opening a portal to the afterlife is cooler anyways."

"Wait what?" It truly amazed Danny when his contrastive friends managed to speak in perfect unison. Sam managed to find her voice first, and she placed her hands on the bed, leaning forward to make sure she was hearing him right. "Did you just say that portal was to the afterlife?"

The resting teen cracked a grin, reveling in the shock on Sam's face. "What exactly did you think my parents research the most? They're ghost hunters but in a more scientifically interested way. I told you this, right?"

"No," Tucker waved his arms comically in exasperation. "You never told us that your folks were trying to open a doorway to the Land of the Dead! That's so…" he waved his hands around as though he could physically grasp the right words. "So cool! First, they discover gravitons and make the technology to use them, and now they've proven life after death?"

"That's pretty revolutionary, Danny," Sam bumped her knuckles against his arm. "And you're the one who opened it up!" Danny grinned at her, and she stopped, turning to look at Tucker. The technogeek met her gaze. "Actually... Danny, something weird happened right after you came out of the portal."

"Well, yeah, I didn't die." Danny tried to shrug off the weight of that statement, but it hung in the air like a chunk of led.

Tucker shook his head, a hand on Danny's shoulder. "No, man. I think... I think we saw your ghost for a second, and then there was a blinding light, and then you were you again."

"Your suit was reversed in color, and your hair was bleached white," Sam elaborated when Danny looked skeptical. "Your eyes were green too! Not like Tuck's eyes, but this toxic glowing kind like they put in the movies for toxic waste."

"Plus you were like, a foot off the ground when you came out of the portal, dude," Tuck added on, further contributing to Danny's eyes widening to the size of the moon. "When you fell onto your face there was this light halo that turned you back to normal. Think we might have actually seen your ghost?"

Danny stared at the space between his friends instead of either of them, needing to digest this. He had been different coming out of the portal? He didn't feel all that different besides being tired as Tartarus. He wasn't even all that fatigued if one were to ask. But then, shouldn't I be? Danny looked down at his hand and flexed his fingers. "I feel a little heavier than before but other than that I feel just like I did going into the portal." Sam opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Jazz's voice.

"You feel heavier because there are bedsheets on you, lightweight." She placed the small blue plastic cup in front of his face, bendy straw pointed towards his mouth. "Don't even think of moving too much. Just drink, little brother. You shouldn't have the energy to talk as much as you have been." Danny couldn't say no to the concern in his sister's voice, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to make her worry more with the information that his friends just gave him, so he decided to just go with it and drink from the straw.

Sam stared at the window and chewed on her lip. Even with Danny trying to keep up a light mood, there was still awkwardness in the air, and she knew at least one source of it. "Danny, I… I'm sorry. For pressuring you into going into the portal, I mean." The boy in question turned his eyes to her but didn't stop in his quest to drain all the water from the cup in one go without breathing. "You warned us that it was dangerous and that we should just go to the concert but I thought that you'd be able to find the problem, and then we'd tell your parents, and they'd congratulate you, not- I didn't expect-"

"Sam," Danny interrupted with something between a sigh and a groan. "I won't pretend I'm not upset that you got me stuck in these itchy hospital sheets and cold gown, but you did get me to complete a project my parents have been working on for like, twenty years." He flashed her a grin. "Don't beat yourself up too much about it. It's in the past, and we can't change that."

"That is a lot fairer than I would have given you credit for, little brother." Jazz ruffled Danny's mess of black hair and shot the goth a nasty look. "And more fair than I'm feeling at the moment."

"That's cause I'm the bigger person here, right Tuck?" the siblings looked over at the geek, who was currently staring at the wall next to the door, hand resting on the EKG machine. His eyes were glassy, and if he didn't know better, Danny would have said his eyes had changed colors a bit. But that was ridiculous because Tucker refused to put in contacts and now was hardly the time to try it. "Tuck?"

"Huh?" the nerd blinked, and the glassy film vanished from his eyes, which flicked over to his best friends and Jazz. "Was that a serious question? Of course, you are Danny, after me of course." He laughed as the others protested, shaking off what he thought he saw. It wasn't possible after all.

After around ten minutes of talking, Danny started yawning, and Sam and Tucker were shooed away by Jazz, much to the youngest Fenton's protesting. Jack and Maddie came in and watched over him as he fell asleep, talking idly about the success of the portal and plans on testing whether or not they could move it.

* * *

" **Well** , " a voice spoke, echoing in the cavern from which it came from. **"That damnable veil has a rather permanent hole punched into it. Now should be a wonderful time to make use of that freak from a few years ago. What was his name… ah yes, Vlad. It's time for a game, mortals. Let's see if any half-breeds can survive.** "

* * *

 **Well? Questions, comments, thoughts about the worlds? What did you think friends? tell me in the reviews, and if you can think of a theme song or something, go ahead and talk to me in PMs.**


	3. Episode 2: Surreality

**Praise Calliope! Hello my lovely readers! Tis I, Goliath! How are ya? I finished Voltron season 2 in one day and am dissatisfied with Hunk and Lance barely getting any character depth. Also! I bring to you my baby, Infinite Realms! This little guy here? Amazing. So much fun to write this chapter. I'm callin em episodes as I type them, though. Enough about me and my life, let's get to the show! (also I admit I got a little lazy in the middle there)**

* * *

Danny sailed through the endless emerald sky. A lavender castle in the distance stole his attention from the field of blue grass and green flowers. Towering spires climbed to the heavens; massive, ornate doors gleamed in the setting indigo sunlight; flying buttresses and endless balconies with pointed arches. Below him, children played on the ground and in the air as the adults called out to them to come in.

Danny weaved through the trees, startling the forest life. Birds with wings the size of his arm joined him, dark feathers gleaming as though slicked with oil.

The teen ascended, joyful laughter echoing across the land. This world that carried the dead of other lands, she was more alive than any other! Something shot from the harmless wildflowers, ensnaring him. Bright red vines pulled him down, causing panic to shoot through the young spirit's mind. "No!" Danny struggled and cried out, hoping that someone would come to help him. "Let me go, you overgrown weeds!" He felt an icy chill as the creepers became coils of metal. "No, no!"

The world fell to darkness and he fell with it. Fell from the heavens, dropped from the world, plummeted through the vanishing earth into the abyss. A searing light burned away his form in layers until only his soul remained and-

He saw only darkness, thick and suffocating, weighing down his limbs and no matter how much he thrashed there was only darkness and constraint and an irritating beeping next to him. Then a dimmed light flickered into existence over his head, and the sheet was removed, allowing him to breathe properly. Someone in blue clothing spoke, he couldn't make out anything past the thudding beat of his heart in his eardrums. After a few moments of breathing, Danny tried to focus on the man. "Are you ok, Danny?" the boy let took another shaky breath before nodding.

"Y-yeah, I'm good. Just a dream gone bad, I guess." He let out a yawn and stretched his arms, not wanting to fall back asleep too soon. "What time is it?"

"About five A.M." The nurse answered, checking over the boy's chart and raising a brow as Danny swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "Whoa there, tiger. Where do ya think you're goin?"

"Just wanted to stretch my legs," He glanced at the nurse's name tag, "Jacob. That's not a problem, I hope." For once, he wasn't sarcastic. Though some strange calm had settled over him, Danny was still scared for his health.

Jacob stared at him. "If you can stand up and walk forward ten steps then I'll allow it. Otherwise, you stay in bed." Danny glared, and Jacob grinned. It was a challenge, and no teenager could turn down a challenge. "And no cheating by taking super short steps either." Jacob didn't expect him to be able to make it past three steps.

The teen tried carefully, standing slowly. The first step was wobbly, but the next ones were surer. After ten he couldn't advance, and Danny turned to Jacob. "Um, I don't think I can go any further with this pulling on me, and I promise to keep a thermometer in my mouth if you unhook me."

Jacob's brows shot up. "I'm not supposed to do this," he began. But then the kid pulled out the puppy dog eyes. His lip curled in a pout, and he even slumped like a child told that Santa wasn't real. "You're good, kid. I'll give ya that." Danny fought off a grin. "I don't have the authorization to unhook anything, though. You'll have to stretch those legs in here." The pout became genuine.

"May I have a screwdriver? Flat head if yes." Jacob quirked a brow at Danny, who shrugged at the man. "What? I'm a teenager. We're practically all hyperactive puppies who can't sit still for longer than five minutes."

Jacob rolled his eyes and picked up a remote. "Most teenagers watch TV when bored. I promise, a day in here and you'll be hooked on novellas." He put Danny in bed. Danny pouted, Jacob chuckled. _Odd… coulda swore his eyes were blue._

"I don't speak Spanish," Danny snorted and kicked off his blankets. "So no thank you. Do you get the sci-fi channel here?"

"Wouldn't know," Jacob shrugged, "You'll have to suffer resting up and getting better." Danny covered his eyes. He groaned but grinned. "Feel better, tiger."

Jacob left. Danny turned on the tv. He found the sci-fi channel. Nothing good was on. The teen stood and looked out the window. The sun was already almost entirely above the horizon and painted the sky in golds and pinks. "Just another day or so and I can go home. At least then I can focus on word problems involving space." After all, his parents couldn't have been cruel enough to give him math work that didn't involve the sky. "I hope they slept ok." Danny sighed and looked down. Buses ran even now. Cars left the parking lot. Some entered.

Danny returned to his bed. He looked at the Tv. His mind was elsewhere. Something pressed against him. His head, chest, limbs, everywhere. "'m probably just tired still. Being sick sucks." He closed his eyes. After a few seconds, they opened and he sat up. "I shouldn't be so ready to go back to sleep after that weird ass nightmare." He pinched his nose and shook his head. "I should be scared right now, shouldn't I? Breaking down into tears or something? Praying to Astraeus that I get to see the next dawn?" Glancing at his heart monitor, the beeps having faded into white noise by now, and frowned at the slow yet steady pace of his heart. It wasn't as fast as most heart beats were, and that was a bit alarming. "I'll eat some more bananas, get some extra potassium… that's probably it. Potassium deficiency." Laying back down, Danny muttered quietly, "Nott, don't take me yet…" Danny closed his eyes and tried to ignore how insincere that request sounded. Sleep claimed him swiftly.

* * *

Jack and Maddie had tossed and turned in their bed, unable to find any real rest. Images of Danny burnt to a crisp, or in a casket or his tombstone plagued their dreams just as sleep nearly caught them in its grip. Finally, red-eyed and dazed the pair decided to head downstairs to the lab, maybe get some work in. They had met Jazz at the top of the stairs, black bags beneath her eyes, pouring over a psychology book. "Jazz, honey... that big brain of yours is probably going over way too many things." Jack gave his princess a hug and lead her down the stairs. "Somethin to do will get your mind off of things. It's what we're gonna do."

"Let's head into the garage and see if we can hunt down some cardboard boxes, dear." Maddie kissed Jazz's head, and the teen nodded.

"I'm guessing you plan on moving the lab as soon as possible?"

"Maybe even sooner than that," Maddie nodded and pointed a thumb in the direction of the back door. "Now head on out and get hunting for boxes. Jack, you head down and see if you can sort out some of the things to pack up first." Jazz and Jack nodded, Maddie leading her daughter to the back while Jack moved into the kitchen.

His hand stretched out to flick on the lights when he paused. The large man looked around in puzzlement. The lights were off, and it was damn near midnight. He shouldn't have been able to see so well, and the lights weren't powered by the makeshift ectoplasm he and Mads made last year. The light was coming from the lab door. Opening it, Jack walked down the steps, eyes slowly widening.

Maddie and Jazz picked up stacks of folded down boxes and headed back into the house when they heard the cry of an excited Fenton. "Mads, come quick! It works!" The Fenton women looked at each other for a moment before Maddie set down her stack of boxes.

"Get these into the living room, sweetie." With that ordered, the Fenton Matriarch headed into the living room, then down the stairs and gasped. On the other side of the lab, in front of her husband, was a swirling vortex of every shade of green Maddie had seen in her life. She walked up to Jack and leaned against him slightly. "Jack... Jack the portal! It's operational!" She leaned up and planted a kiss on the corner of Jack's lips, which turned into a quick but love filled kiss. When they split apart, the scientists ran to the computer and control console respectively and dove into their work.

"I'm not sure what he did, Mads," Jack called in his half shout of a voice over his shoulder, "But Danny got the portal to work! It's stable, no ectoplasmic flares like with the protoportal." He stepped back from the control panel next to the portal and toward the computer Maddie was situated at, combing through the data from the chemical sensors inside the portal. He placed a hand on her shoulder, beaming with a radiance that matched the light of the swirling vortex of ectoplasm. For once, she thought nothing about the horror that their son had gone through. "We finally have a way to the other side. Just imagine, we can harvest some of the ectoplasm and solve the energy crisis, and we can go in and see all our ancestors, get the full story of history, even use the other side as a gateway to even more dimesnions and timelines!"

"First we have to confirm that it's as stable as the other ones were," Maddie reminded him gently. Her giant of a man nodded and strode over to one of the filing cabinets. "Still, I have to admit it. The thought of seeing my father again is an uplifting one." Jack pulled out a bright green yo-yo made especially for him with the Ghostbusters logo on the sides. "Once we get the lab moved we can send in a probe to scan the atmosphere for any form of life supporting elements." Even with time to think about it, she was resolute in the decision to move all of this out of easy reach of the kids. Maddie wouldn't lose her babies the way she lost her father.

Jack walked up to the portal and with an expert flick of his wrist, he sent the yo-yo through the event horizon. After ten seconds, he pulled it back fully intact. "Passage through portal confirmed possible for inorganic matter," he spoke into a microphone attached to the inside of his hazmat suit. "Probe to be used at a later date." He stripped off his jumpsuit and zipped up a new one, having been the one most exposed to the radiation of the portal while Maddie was doing the same simply out of habit. They had established their personal protocol for whenever they worked with the chemicals in the lab; change out into something else before leaving it.

Maddie got dressed. Her smile faded with thought. The portal's usefulness paled in comparison to the price paid to get it working. She disconnected the power. Nothing happened. Maddie sat at the computer. Going through data, she frowned. "Jack, come here. I think the portal is keeping itself open."

"No portal has ever been self-sustaining, though." Jack rushed over and stared at the screen. Disconnecting a few more power cables, he scratched his head in fascination. "This is new. Guess this means we can move it along with the rest of the lab." They'd have to make sure that Danny and Jazz were out of the house when they started transferring the portal. "It'll have to go last, though. Jazz is going to be helping us get the rest of this stuff out."

"Sealing the blast doors now." Maddie hit the keys on the console, and the black and yellow tungsten titanium doors slid shut with a hiss that Danny had approved of when he first heard it. "Now, we'll go check on Danny, and when we get back, we can start packing up the lab." She pecked Jack's cheek and headed up the stairs while he finished dressing.

When she reached the door to the kitchen, the boxes were set up and organized by size. Over in the livingroom, Jazz lay on the couch. In her arms was a folded up piece of cardboard, rising and falling with her sleeping breaths.

Maddie walked over and gently pried the would be box from Jazz's hold, pressing a kiss to the sleeping ginger's brow. Jack crept swiftly up the stairs while Maddie placed a pillow under Jazz's head. The salt and pepper haired man draped a pink blanket over their daughter and sighed. The parents locked eyes. After a silent conversation, Jack moved to the kitchen and began cooking up some breakfast for everyone. Maddie ascended the stairs and started typing up something to keep Danny's mind busy when the hospital bored him out of his mind.

* * *

 _I ran, unable to fly. Not yet. Urania was safe; I had escorted her back to Olympus. Now I ran through the towers bordering the Olympian palace. To the battlefield. Father was gathering allies, but Mother was in the thick of it._

 _I ducked an arrow. A sweep of my hand obliterated the revenant. I leaped over a sword, bringing my own down on a demon. "What is he thinking, allowing demons into our world?" An upward swing caught its jaw, giving me time to reach into its chest and freeze its heart. "These creatures shall be the ruin of Geisteal!" I squeezed, shattering the organ. Another demon bore upon me. My braced sword pierced its heart. Both turned to brilliant vapor that swirled into my blade._

 _Finally, out of the barricades that defended Olympus, I soared through the sky as clouds of black, white and blazing crimson crowded the airspace. Despair welled within me at the sight of the ruin my homeland had become. I searched for my mother, but demons and Jotnar filled my vision and the skies. Despair churned into vexation. Espera blazed like the Pyriphlegethon, and I unleashed an arc of flames so intense even the demons could not withstand them. Thunder rolled over the battlefield as my voice of indignation. Lances of lightning struck the jotnar in my path down and blades of wind sliced through swaths of enemy gods. Traitors who turned on us for the wretched usurper._

 _These creatures of light and chaos thought they could assault Geisteal, the Spirit Mother, and get away with it? With each fallen foe Espera's blade shone brighter with a variegation of the now damned souls. Ancient beasts of the Earth cried out in challenge, and I drove my sword through them like paper. Bands of the ground rose and coiled around the reptiles and invaders, either strangling them into nothingness or holding them long enough for me to slay them. Black ice like that of the Styx flew from my palm and sealed away demon after demon until finally my path was cleared of the wretched things._

 _I saw them. My mother - clad in a dress woven of celestial gold and Stygian iron, and typically shining bronze armor - wielded two spears of Lethen and Stygian iron respectively. Each blazed like torches in an eternal night, clashing with a morning star and a sword. A swing that just barely missed and a green horn fell to the ground, followed by a howl of pain and outrage. Twin beams of light shot from her eyes and struck the bastard she battled in the face._

 _He wore armor from our homeland, black as Nyx, but with gauntlets and sabatons grayed with the unnatural light of the lands of Chaos surging through them. His hair was similarly burnished, toxically bright, as though his brain - or what was left of it - was burning in the light of demons. Upon his crown... my thoughts ground to a halt, and I was overtaken with such animosity, the Styx could not contain such hate. The bastard dared to bear upon his head a crown, to reinforce that he considered himself king of this world. Pain, Suffering, Hatred, Fire, Oblivion. The strength of the rivers coursed through me and between my hands._

 _A javelin of chthonic power formed in my hands and I aimed for Pariah's head. Mother saw me and ducked. I sometimes struck with more force than I intended and hit things behind my targets. The usurper's Morningstar hit her in the face, and I cried out in a fury. A shield of mauve plasma blocked my attack, cracking but unbroken until it detonated. When the smoke cleared, I gazed upon the dark general of Pariah's forces. The Netherial blade of Espera shimmered with the souls of the demons I had slain already._

 _"Worthless spawn of Deimos! You and your master shall fall!" I needed to aid my mother in her battle with Pariah, but this wasp blocked my path. I swung down; he dashed to the right, and his blade arced toward my neck. I tumbled forward and attempted a skyward slash, which he deflected to the left. I was forced to roll onto my back when violet fire seared the air before my face, but I planted my heels in his gut and launched him away. My mother slashed at Pariah's face. Green liquid sprayed. I guarded. A grin crossed my face even as the acrid smoke of the battlefield filled my nostrils and the taste of nickel filled my mouth._

 _Green clashed with black explosively everytime he guarded against my attacks. I swung at his shoulder and managed to knock off his pauldron before green metal struck my face. A cut burned on my cheek, and the scent of seared flesh overwhelmed all others, but I was still standing. He had only managed to burn me with the flames coating his Animacturam's edge. Fright stabbed at my arms and chest, but I weaved around his blows. He blocked attack after attack, but even as my aggravation grew, I carved deep gouges in his armor. His guard was not unbreakable, but my agility was not infallible._

 _Burns littered my sides, and my vambraces were being chipped away with every skillful swing Fright managed. Green poured from each mark I made upon his armor. His stabs and lunges lost speed and strength. I had to put more force into each swing to get even half as deep into his armor as before. The weight of unleashing my wrath upon the lesser demons held me back, but Fright tired quicker._

 _An eternity passed us by. The clang of metal; the grunts of fighters trying to see through their opponent's defense; the taste and smell of blood, smoke, and plasma. Finally, my father's gift aided me. A swing of Espera swiped Animacturam out of Fright's hand and sent it plummeting to the ground. I unleashed a burst of power that struck true in the center of his chest, piercing and burning his breastplate until his smoke colored flesh was exposed and burned as well._

 _My eyes roved and locked onto the falling sword of nightmares, and I dove for it. Sheathing my own sword, I held its hilt in a death grip. We were above the gardens, nearly untouched by the siege. A wicked grin alone could be seen of my helmed face and curls of bluish white light wrapped around the blade. I picked up a fallen fruit and willed a barrier into existence to guard against Fright's desperate attacks from above. This was the power that most feared me for, a power that was greatly derived from my mother, but more terrifying because of how I did it._

 _"To cease the storm, to end the fear," The Blade fought for freedom, and Fright struck my shield with berserker desperation, but his struggles were in vain. "The sword must sheath in pumpkin near!" I stabbed the fruit with the Animacturam. My power coursed through the blade. Blue-white light reached out through my barrier and drew in a dark alicorn, the general himself, and all the terrors he had unleashed._

 _Manic laughter cut through my sense of satisfaction, and I shot into the air to see my mother knocked onto her back by Pariah. I cut through the air and gathered my strength. Once in front of mother, I raised my hands and erected the strongest shield that I could, bracing myself to hold off the force of the Morningstar. When it struck, my shield folded and was drawn in - not to his weapon, but to his gauntlet. A band of green caught my eye before the spiked weapon slammed into me and cracked my armor. A scream tore out of my throat as a new kind of pain seared through my veins._

 _Instead of being launched into my mother's fallen form, I was crushed by a metal covered hand that covered my body from shoulder to foot. "Release me you bastard!" I swung my sword and managed to slice my way up Pariah's face, cutting his eye before I stabbed it. He roared in pain and fury, squeezing me tighter instead of letting go and I nearly regretted my action._

 _"I think not!" He bellowed. "Why would I relinquish that which I came all this way searching for?" What did that mean? Pariah was searching for the Heart. The true heir to the throne and wellspring of unlimited power. Only father knew who that even was. Blinding agony wrenched a scream from me. The earth cracked, the sky shook, and the walls of the palace trembled. My skin cooked, my veins boiling, my core lanced with agony. My core was being melted down into a puddle that was being drawn out of every pore of my body and into something that pressed into my back._

 _I screamed for it to stop stop stop make it stop, please stop! I could feel the Light weaving around Geisteal, binding her and cutting her off from the outside worlds. My power was split and raced up to burn as fire between the particles of metal in Pariah's mocking crown. I felt the sorrow, the hatred, the pain of Geisteal utterly at that moment, and knew that I was dying._

 _The last thing I heard before I left the world of second chances, over the sound of the mad tyrant's cackling, over the shattering of our planet, over the weeping of our world, was my mother's cry outweighing every lost soul in the Kokytos. "SORTOS!"_

 _Even as the world fell silent and cold and empty; even as I could no longer feel or move or taste or smell; even as I died and slipped into oblivion, I knew. I would return, and Pariah would feel my unbridled wrath_.

* * *

When Danny woke, he shivered. A glance around. Sunlight poured into his room. "Two weird dreams in a row? I might need to ask Jazz to examine me." He grabbed at his blanket, blinking when he found it underneath him. "So, sleepwalking? Did I make my bed and then lay on it?" With a slow, careful stretch Danny let his feet hit the yellow and pink tiles. The cold had him nearly pulling them back up, but he stood up slowly and let out a yawn.

Walking over to the window, he glanced down at the road and saw it was busier than a beehive. Cars flew down the road in either direction so quickly, Danny strained his eyes to try and keep track of any of them. After a bit, he began to make a small game of it. Hearing the sound of thunderous footsteps, he dove under the blankets as quickly as he dared. Knowing that his parents would likely scold him for not staying in bed all night, he closed his eyes just as the door handle clicked from turning and wondered how he could have possibly heard that over the TV.

"... hasn't had any vomiting attacks from what we've seen and the dosimeter and survey meter haven't picked up any known forms of radiation. There is something odd about his blood cells, however." That was his doctor, something Solace. He was talking about Danny's test results. Shouldn't the patient be informed at the same time as his parents? "There were some of his cell that held .001 percent nickel."

Usually, it's best to simply allow your doctor to continue talking when he's revealing your odd symptoms - or at least Danny assumed it was odd to have any amount of nickel or copper in your blood - but Fentons weren't all that normal.

Ignoring the increased beeping next to him, Danny sat up slowly, taking only a bit of humor in from the look on his father's face and the gasp that his sister gave, before turning to look the doctor directly in the eye. "I promise, I'll stop swallowing nickels." His heart monitor went silent for a moment before his sister cracked. The slightest upward curve of her lips and Danny filled the room with high laughter that caused even him to cringe. He and Tucker shouldn't have looked up the effects of various things on the human body when they were seven.

"Danny, you can't pretend to be asleep when hooked up to a heart monitor," Jazz pointed out with that ghost of a smile still present, if only to give her brother a bit of morale. "We can tell the difference between your resting pulse and your active pulse."

"Why," Danny quirked a brow at his sister, leaning forward onto his knuckles, "do you know this difference, spazz? I can't think of a single good reason for you to know this." The elder Fentons and his pediatrician shook their heads at the exchange but smiled all the same. Danny's smile turned into a frown, and his eyes swiveled to the face of the doctor - Jason Solace, his name tag said. "So, shouldn't I not have been able to laugh that hard if I have nickel poisoning?"

"That's true, though we can't say for sure that you have nickel poisoning, as there was a rather small amount of it in your blood. According to the hematologist, the traces of nickel seemed to vanish overnight." The doctor seemed less than pleased about that information, but Danny wasn't sure why. His Mom and Dad also looked particularly grave about that, and Danny feared he may have forgotten something his mom had told him during one of her lessons to him and Jazz about chemical reactions. "In appearance, you've just got a small amount of it in your bloodstream, and it should filter out soon enough. I'd like another sample to check over if that's ok with you." Here, Dr. Solace looked over to Danny's parents. "But you can take Danny home as soon as tomorrow if things check out."

"Another test wouldn't hurt anything, would it?" Maddie muttered, glancing up to Jack. "We want to be sure that nothing wrong goes on with Danny." Nickel was one of the few recognizable elements on the periodic table they could identify in the ectoplasm sample from the protoportal. Other things could have lead to some nickel being in Danny's system, but he was caught in the opening of an ectoplasmic gateway.

"As long as Maddie is ok with it, I say it's fine." Jack placed a hand on Maddie's shoulder and offered a tight smile. He was thinking the same thing as Maddie about the nickel. The last time anyone had been exposed to ectoplasmic radiation on that scale, he had been considered a biohazard only the doctors were allowed to see. And that had been Jack's fault as well for not checking over what was being put in the machine. "I'm sure Danny will be okay, though."

"No," Danny objected. "I'll die of boredom by the time that I can get out of here. They won't even give me a simple flathead screwdriver." Danny fell back onto his bed, letting his body bounce ever so slightly. "It's not like I'll do anything bad with it, either."

"Son, ya can't take apart hospital equipment," Danny looked up at his father incredulously to see a light dusting of red on the man's face. "I know from experience that it's more trouble than it's worth to try and do that while you're healing up. The remote, though…"

Maddie shook her head and placed a hand on Dr. Solace's shoulder. "Please do not allow either of these two near a screwdriver while Danny is here. It's for your own good and our insurance." Both of her boys deflated, and the Fenton mother let out a sigh. These two.

Despite the odd conversation, Dr. Solace didn't show himself to be all that confused. "It's perfectly understandable, Dr. Fenton. A child of such exceptional intelligence would grow bored pretty quick without familiar stimulation. Maybe some math problems would help with that? What's the size of the Enterprise?"

"642.5 meters long, 195.26 meters high, and the beam is 463.73 meters." The doctor stared at him, and Danny shrugged. "That was easy, try again."

"Um, what kind of crystals-" The doctor didn't even get to finish asking before Danny shot out the answer.

"Most will be powered by the kaiburr crystals mined on Jedah, but there are several kinds of crystals that can produce the controlled plasma weapon." Danny rolled his eyes and laid back. "That, again, is an easy question. I am a nerd, we do not forget these kinds of facts, my good sir. Also, I agree about the blood test, cause I wanna be prepared in case I'll need an inhaler in the future." The doctor stifled a laugh and shook his head. This kid was something else.

"I'll be back in a short while to get another blood sample, but for now I think I'll stop delaying your family bonding time." The doctor left, and for a moment, the room was silent.

Jazz sat on Danny's bed, leaned in real close, and frowned. "What happened to your eyes?" Before he could ask what she meant, Jazz pulled a small mirror out of her pocket and held it up for him to see. Their parents came closer as he inspected his own face. There were scars, though he had known that already. A quick trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night confirmed that. It also included nurse Jacob coming in and reminding Danny not to disconnect his heart monitor for anything. Besides the itchy scars, the only irregularity in Danny's face was hard to see. Then, he realized what she meant. "Your eyes are teal instead of blue."

"Aquamarine, excuse you," Danny shot a quick quip before refocusing on his eyes. "Ah, but you know nothing of true art, how could you tell?" He closed the makeup mirror and handed it back to his sister while his mother framed his face in her hands, twisting it this way and that. "So am I going to start shooting lasers from my eyes? That would be pretty awesome."

"Danny," Maddie said slowly, attempting to get his attention. "This is serious. Your blood tests and the circumstances suggest you might be suffering from ectoplasmic radiation poisoning."

"Except he's not showing any of the symptoms that the only other known case showed." Jack lifted Danny's arm and examined it for any welts or blemishes. All he could see was lightning tracing the raven teen's veins. "He survived it, but after two years in some hospital that we weren't allowed to visit him in. They didn't even let us know where he was when we asked about him…"

"Vlad contacted us one day and told us that he was alright," Maddie continued, seeing that Danny would probably panic if she didn't at least keep his mind from jumping to the more gruesome conclusions. "He sounded bitter, though, and he hasn't said anything about wanting to see us ever again." The thought of something like what happened to Vlad happening to her son felt like a knife straight to Maddie's heart. "The only evidence that you've been exposed to the radiation appears to be your scars and your eyes. Ectoplasm is green, so until your system expels the contaminant, your eyes may turn green."

"Your eyes will match your glow in the dark ceiling stars, Danno. You'll want a bucket in case you start blowing chunks of ecto goop, but I'm sure the doc has something here in your room just for that."

"What if I start crying ectoplasm?" Danny saw the way his family stiffened and could practically feel his brain hitting the gas. "That'd look awesome! I'll have to draw that at some point." Danny fell back onto his bed and shrugged. "If only I had my sketchpad with me."

"You're taking this far too lightly, young man," Maddie started in a stern voice. She drew Danny into a hug and noted how stiff he was. Every muscle she could feel in her embrace was tensed like a spring. "Danny, you need to get as much rest as possible and eat all of the food that they give you."

Danny let out what was probably meant to sound like a laugh. "C'mon, mom, the food here is terrible! There's no taste to it at all, it's nothing like what Dad makes." His mother pulled back and arched a brow at him. "...or what you make. And you cook far better than any hospital cafeteria ever could." A hand - Jazz's - rubbed circles into his back, and Danny tried to relax his muscles. But how do you relax your anything when someone tells you that you've been poisoned by radiation? He wished he could take his words back when he had complained about his parents' melancholy. He wished that he could take back his agreement with Sam. All he wanted was for this problem to disappear.

His body was cold as ice, the monitor flat-lined, and the itchiness of his blankets and hospital gown slipped away. Even the pull of gravity faded, the bed and the floor suddenly a foot away from him. "Danny!" Everyone shouted his name at once, but he could barely hear them over his own screaming. He flailed in the air and reached out for something, anything that would stop him from floating through the ceiling. His hands curled around the metal rack for the privacy curtain, but his fingers went _through_ the rack.

His brain gibbered with panic after that. Thoughts going numb. Fear flaring wildly. Animalistic. The thud of the ceiling was welcoming solid ground. Dad jumped up and grabbed onto Danny's arms, hoping to pull the significantly smaller boy down to the ground with him. Danny's hand may have stayed solid now, but he was somehow holding up his dad's weight - something that almost nobody could do. When Danny paused for breath, his throat having been stuffed with sandpaper, he could finally make out what was being said. "Danny, I need you to concentrate! Remember how this kind of thing works in all of those comic books?" He didn't, at the moment. Everything was a bit too blurred with panic. "Son, remember Spider-man! Ya gotta focus! I'll catch you!"

At the same time that Jack was giving his advice, Doctor Jason Solace, and Nurse Jacob Therapef walked in - Jason with his syringe to get the blood sample, and Jacob because he had been alerted once more about the heart monitor in room 114. Maddie and Jasmine Fenton were standing on the bed of the youngest member of the family, reaching up to grab onto his legs and torso. Said young man was currently pressed against the ceiling, with his father holding onto his arms to try and weigh him down. Daniel also happened to be missing some parts of him from the visible spectrum; his legs, chest, and part of his head appeared to simply be gone. Upon seeing this, the young Fenton screamed even louder than he had been before - quite the feat since the doctor and nurse could hear the screaming from down the hall.

Before any questions could be verbalized, such as _What the hell is going on?_ Gravity took notice of Danny's situation, was offended by his contrary behavior, and gripped him firmly. Jack only fell about three feet and managed to bend his knees in time to save them, while Danny landed roughly in his father's arms. The boy shook, and the room was quiet.

* * *

 **Well! I sure kept that secret well hidden, didn't I? So what did ya think? And remember, flames will be used to either fuel this lovely spot in hell i reside in, or help me burn down the heavens.**

 **Es Pair: we're talking about The Jack Fenton, right? The man who built: a hover vehicle with defensive capabilities regarding interdimensional aliens; a transdimensional barrier to keep out and/or contain said interdimensional beings; a shrink ray that can de-power interdimensional beings; a device that allows one to convert extradimensional matter (ectoplasm) and it's unique form of radiation into electricity; a belt that keeps hostile extradimensional beings from touching you all by himself? Jack was never dumb. Just extremely excitable and ready to do what needed to be done (or what he saw as needing to be done).**

 **feefee242: why thank you, you're awesome for reviewing.**

 **GirlFish: The Oracle, Himerish, is an asshole. Geistael should never have been cut off, and he's lucky Goliath jumped in to save his ass from a beat down a la Clockwork.**

 **So, I plan on podficing this thing on youtube, but i can't say when cause I gotta figure out how exactly to make that work software wise. Anyways, I'd like to say that it's entirely possible that you see symbolism that was entirely accidental in here - my awesome beta reader certainly did. Seriously, tell me what you think of everything and what attitude you get from all of this, it _will_ have an impact on where this goes because my only end game is (error, data missing, trasnmission corrupted. Reconnecting...) which is why it's crucial to have that kind of information!**

 _Yellow is the color of the mind and intellect_


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